Sister Christine Frost has been campaigning for the residents of Docklands since the 1980s. Here, she explains what Canary Wharf Group is doing for the community
"I brought him up the stairs, so he could feel the wee and smell the piss. I said: 'Would you like your grandson to grow up here?'" Sister Christine Frost is a formidable character. In the late 1980s, when she invited a senior member of the London Docklands Development Corporation to tour a rough Poplar housing estate, she believed the corporation was only interested in creating shiny new offices.

She wasn't the only one. Since 1988, the Irish-born nun has led South Poplar and Limehouse Action for Secure Housing – a federation of Docklands tenant bodies that began campaigning for residents' rights just as the largest building site in Europe appeared in their neighbourhood.

The construction of Canary Wharf created deafening noise and heavy pollution: some children are said to have worn masks to protect their lungs from the dust. In 1991, SPLASH launched a £100m legal challenge against the LDDC for noise pollution and loss of TV reception. The case got as far as the House of Lords, but was finally dismissed in 1997.

Today, Sister Christine admits that she might have been wrong to blame Canary Wharf Group's predecessor Olympia & York for some of the problems. She adds that when the development corporation was wound up in March 1998, things started to change. "Canary Wharf's attitude is so much better. They invest in SPLASH; they invest in community groups," she says.

Cleverly, Canary Wharf Group also hired Peter Wade as head of public affairs. Wade is from the Isle of Dogs, and was a leading figure in the campaign against the LDDC. His appointment was popular, she says: "Peter is very down to earth. He decided, as you do when you are up against a giant, that you're not going to beat them, so why not join them and work for the community from within?"

Wade has clearly had an impact. Canary Wharf Group chief executive George Iacobescu is personally involved in the community development team and has granted Wade the luxury of a flexible budget. The team's financial freedom is matched by the diversity of community schemes it either leads or invests in.

Local jobs for local people
One scheme has been to employ local people in the construction of the estate. On the Canary Riverside project, which started on site in 1997, Canary Wharf has sought to improve local construction skills, offering a lucrative source of employment to the otherwise low-paid East End workforce.

The group found that many of the bricklayers it was interviewing to work at Canary Riverside were qualified to NVQ level III, but had little site experience and lacked speed. These craftsmen were given a four-week training programme that led to 94% of them being recruited on the project. From this grew a modern apprenticeship programme and, last November, Canary Wharf and construction union UCATT launched a programme that offered site workers the opportunity to improve their computer and internet skills.

My favourite is 10 Cabot Square – the one with the Celtic designs on the front. I’m prejudiced because I’m Irish

Sister Christine Frost

By 2001, about 30% of Canary Wharf's 6000 construction workers were residents of the six Docklands boroughs.

The community development team also holds monthly lunches for community leaders to inform them of future developments. Sister Christine is a regular attendee. She says the meetings give the community the opportunity to lobby Canary Wharf to introduce its ideas. As a result, she is to meet executives this summer to secure funding for a bus that would visit estates to offer residents advice on training and drawing up CVs.

Give me the child …
She will also push for the expansion of a programme that invites 12- to 13-year-olds into companies based at Canary Wharf for work experience: "At 12, you decide whether you're worth something or you've got nothing to offer and go on drugs or steal cars. We want to get to the kids before they decide that they're worthless."

Canary Wharf Group's sports programme also focuses on helping local young people. It employs what it says is the only full-time sports development manager working for a major company. Zakir Khan joined after Canary Wharf Group sponsored his football team, Sporting Bengal, for several years.

Through this relationship, Canary Wharf Group noted how the promotion of sport boosted the spirits of local children and combated racism. As a result, the group started inviting teams over to the UK to take on the teams it sponsored.

"In terms of working on issues of race, sport is a great leveller," says Canary Wharf adviser Robert John, who also fears that the paucity of Asian professional footballers has led to racist jibes over their sporting ability. "The day we get Asians playing in the Premiership, it will be harder for people to throw that particular slur."

The football programme helps disadvantaged kids from all ethnic backgrounds, though. The group has established an academy of excellence: local Sunday league sides for 12- to 16-year-olds are invited to send their most talented young players on a 10-week course run by Canary Wharf Group and coached by staff from Tottenham Hotspur FC. These coaches pick the best players from this course, who then play against an invited professional team. Scouts from major clubs such as Arsenal and Chelsea watch the game. Three players who have taken part in the course have since trained with Charlton Athletic and one with Wimbledon. Another has now been accepted into Queen's Park Rangers' under-18s academy.